Apple employees can continue to work from home until early 2021, CEO Tim Cook said in an interview with Bloomberg news agency. A few days earlier that Google is also going to keep staff on a remote work schedule until at least next summer.
“What happens next will depend on the effectiveness of vaccinations, treatments and other factors,” Cook said.
The Cupertino-based chief executive compared Apple's future plans to open offices and retail stores to the accordion. The approach chosen by the company will allow opening and closing them, if necessary, against the backdrop of a changing epidemiological situation. According to previous reports, Apple began to gradually return its employees to their jobs back in May. The company assumed that its offices could return to full operation in July.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, commenting on the company's second-quarter financial results Thursday, said the company has not yet set a schedule for the return of its employees to offices. Outbreaks of COVID-19 continue in the United States, so it is too early to draw any conclusions. According to its original plans, Facebook wanted to start opening offices from July 6th.
In a conversation with analysts about the latest financial results, Zuckerberg said that they could be better if the US government dealt with the problems associated with COVID-19 more effectively.
“The coronavirus continues to spread in the US, so we don’t see a way to get our teams back into the offices just yet. This is very disappointing. The country could have avoided the current scale of the pandemic if our government had worked more efficiently,” Zuckerberg said.
The head of Facebook has repeatedly criticized the administration of President Donald Trump on issues related to the fight against COVID-19. For example, Zuckerberg voiced a similar opinion on July 16 in a conversation with the famous American immunologist and infectious disease specialist Anthony Fauci.
In the second quarter of 2020, Facebook reported an 11% increase in revenue, despite the pandemic, which seriously affected the economy and advertising revenue. Against the backdrop of such indicators, the value of the company's shares increased by 6%. Expenses in the second quarter increased by 24% compared to the reporting period last year. At the same time, according to Facebook CFO David Wehner, this growth was less than in the first quarter of 2020. Mainly due to the fact that the costs associated with business trips and various events have decreased, since the majority of employees have been transferred to a remote mode of work.
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Source: 3dnews.ru